21 September 2010

Former Refugee Now Advances U.S. Refugee Policy

Since 2004, Hoa Tran has worked on refugee policy at the U.S. Department of State.

Hoa Tran left Vietnam as a young child in 1975 and resettled in the United States. She now works on refugee policy at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

Question: When did you arrive to the United States?

Hoa: I arrived in November 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia, nine months after we departed Vietnam. That’s where my family was resettled. I was 7 years old.

Q: Did you come with your entire family?

A: My whole family came except for my oldest sister and oldest brother, who stayed back in Vietnam with my grandparents. My grandparents were in their late 80s at the time and they basically said that they would like to die in their own country rather than take the long trek over with us.

Q: Describe your journey from Vietnam.

A: It was very chaotic, I remember that. It took us several months to get to the U.S. We first left our hometown, Quy Nhon, in February of 1975, and we made it to a U.S. Navy base in Cam Ranh Bay the following month. We departed Phu Quoc in April, and then spent some time in a couple of refugee camps at U.S. Air Force and military bases in Guam and Wake Island before coming to the U.S. At the time, the U.S. policy was to resettle Vietnamese refugees to every state in the U.S. so that no one state was over-burdened by the influx of refugees. There were four refugee processing centers set up and we were sent to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, in August of 1975, and from there we were resettled to Atlanta.

Q: When you arrived to the United States, who helped you find an apartment, showed you around town and such?

A: We were sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, so they took care of us in the beginning, finding a place to live, getting us settled with some job opportunities, and then helping to get me and my siblings into school.

Q: When did you begin to feel that the United States was your new home, or did you always feel like a visitor?

A: Both. Kids are very honest with their feelings, and I was constantly harassed by other kids in school. I also have a temper, so I would fight back. I was constantly in trouble throughout elementary school. Eventually, they set up an ESL [English as a Second Language] program … and I was in the class with my brother and sister and kids from elsewhere. We were able to learn English more systematically. We were able to relate to each other, and that helped with the transition into the regular classroom.

Q: Was it hard to get adjusted to the new culture?

A: I was a very curious child and was always exploring and getting into all sorts of trouble. I confronted challenges head on. I was also very playful and would do the sorts of things that little kids do and got in trouble for that, too. The challenges that my older siblings and my parents went through, of course, impacted the family. I remember my father got really ill a few years after we were in the States and we didn’t understand the health care system and didn’t know what to do. He struggled through cancer and eventually passed away. It was very, very difficult for us during that whole period.

Q: Were there people that you remember who helped you and your family?

A: My ESL teacher was super helpful. She was very compassionate and understanding. I remember her getting married and leaving Atlanta and I was very upset by that. The people at the Presbyterian Church were also very helpful and responsive to our needs.

Q: How did you reconcile the divide between the people who helped you and those who were less understanding?

A: You grow up in life encountering people with various perspectives of viewing life and dealing with other people from different parts of the world. The way that I dealt with it was to rely on and trust the people who are helpful, to know when to reach out for help and to know that you can’t fight every battle.

Q: Were there people who made you feel welcome in Atlanta and made you and your family feel at home?

A: It’s very interesting that I don’t ever remember being invited over to someone’s house for dinner, but the people that helped us the most were the people from the church. We would see them regularly on Sundays and then they would come to our house to visit … and to make sure that we had the things that we needed. We were very grateful for that. They also helped us find jobs. My dad and my mom had to do [menial] service jobs as compared to what they were doing before in Vietnam. My mom ran her own business and my dad worked for the South Vietnamese and U.S. governments, which was part of the reason why we were lucky enough to be evacuated early.

 

South Vietnamese in Da Nang, Vietnam, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, struggle to climb aboard ships that will evacuate them to Cam Ranh Bay. Hoa Tran and her family were evacuated to Cam Ranh Bay and eventually resettled in Atlanta, Georgia.

South Vietnamese in Da Nang, Vietnam, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, struggle to climb aboard evacuation ships.

Q: When did you and your family become U.S. citizens?

A: At various times. For me, it was in 1991.

Q: How did you feel during this time?

A: “When we went to the court in Atlanta for me to be sworn in, everyone was given a little flag, and we had to wave it, and they gave a really nice speech. And it was just great to be in that room with so many people from all over the world.

My dad was very involved in the struggle in Vietnam, and then we were assisted to be evacuated and come to a safe place. And then to get to the point where I am now officially a U.S. citizen — it was a good feeling.

Q: When you were growing up did you think of yourself as an American?

A: I don’t think I ever thought of myself as an American just because, one, there isn’t a single American identity and two, there also isn’t a single Vietnamese identity. I worked with a lot of Vietnamese Americans and other ethnic groups and other refugee and immigrant groups and it’s very hard to … define who you are since you and everything around you change over time.

Q: In the context that you are living now, how do you think of yourself: Vietnamese American, Vietnamese, something else?

A: I guess I would say, Vietnamese American.

Q: Why did you decide to work for the State Department?

A: When I was in high school, I started volunteering for a homeless shelter and worked with children there. Also in my high school, we had a magnet program that focused on communications and so I became interested in documentary photography. After high school, I got involved in refugee work when the 1988 Amerasian Homecoming Act was passed, and I started working with refugees that were able to be resettled in the U.S. I worked very closely with several families and did another documentary photography exhibit with the families present. It was a way for them to share their experiences and to make their issues public.

During undergraduate and graduate school, I continued to do advocacy work, including work with refugees. After getting my doctorate in anthropology, I found out about the AAAS [American Association for the Advancement of Science] Diplomacy Fellowship Program. I applied, got in and thought that I would only be in [the District of Columbia] for a short time. I wanted to be at State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration [PRM], and luckily it worked out with PRM. I intended on being here for only a year or two, but [I] really admire the work of the bureau, and the people who work in there are extremely dedicated. They really work hard to provide humanitarian protection and assistance to victims of conflict worldwide and work endless hours to make things happen.

Q: As a former refugee yourself, what did you think that you could bring extra to helping other refugees?

A: I felt that they are struggling the way that we did, not knowing the lay of the land, and in any way that I can be helpful I wanted to be helpful to them, in giving them whatever advice, or taking them to the doctor, or doing whatever I can to make their life a little easier. I felt that I could relate, given our family’s experiences, and be able to communicate with them in their own language and also to take the kids out to go do fun things and just hang out.

Q: Do you think that refugee services in the United States have improved since you first arrived in 1975?

A: Assistance was there when we arrived, but of course, with many years of experience with refugee flows, there are more agencies and organizations involved and also more … former refugees who are staff. The pool [of people who help refugees] is much more diverse, and they bring experience and insight that I think is definitely a big step forward from when we arrived in 1975. Of course, even those who came in 1975 are still struggling now, trying to survive and navigate the system.

Q: Are there aspects of American life/culture that you think played a specific role in your success? Do you think that if you had been resettled to another country you would have had the same opportunities?

A: Definitely there are all sorts of opportunities here [in the U.S.] and it is really up to the individual, whether a refugee or not, to work toward achieving your goals and try to find ways to maneuver through the challenges and obstacles. Of course, there are underlying structural and institutional systems that can be very difficult to overcome and it may take one individual many more years than another, but definitely opportunities are there and in other circumstances opportunities are not there for many people. It’s hard to compare, if I had been resettled in Sweden or elsewhere and given whatever kind of challenges or opportunities are there. Just speaking for me and my stubbornness, I will find a way to endure and deal with challenges in one way or another.

Q: Describe your work on refugee policy given your background as a former refugee.

A: I believe that I understand the challenges of trying to negotiate and work through numerous issues on humanitarian protection and assistance for vulnerable populations that we [PRM] cover, and trying our hardest to achieve durable solutions or temporary protection options. And when we can’t reach that objective no matter how hard we advocate … I lose sleep over it. It’s very hard, but then there are times when it is possible to achieve a solution to a complex situation and that’s extremely rewarding. Again, as in life, you just put in your best effort and try to fight as hard as you can to try to reach a goal. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but you don’t ever give up.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)